I am currently watching Indiana's Electoral College delegation meet in Indianapolis, as they officially cast their votes for the President of the United States. Very cool access. (How did I get such access? I simply said that the peony is my favorite flower!)

Remember, today in state capitols throughout America, the ACTUAL election for President and Veep is happening. Only 538 Americans' votes count in the end. (Makes a lot of sense, right?)

Pictures as I get them, starting with the ones below:


Here I am outside Indiana's state capitol.


My ticket to the meeting of the Electors.


The Indiana Honor Guard.


Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita, the man who certifies Indiana's Electors.


Indiana's 11 Electors enter

One elector and one alternate.

11 Electors and Alternates take oath to vote (for the rest of us, since our votes don't really count).
The written oath of Hope Tribble, the lovely Alternate sitting next to me.

Here I am with Hope!

This is the best: Ben Leatherbury is a 19 year old Elector. Here he is holding his diploma -- er, Elector certificate. (To think his very first vote for President will actually count.)

Elector Michelle Boxell with her certificate.

And here's Michelle's actual ballot for President!

The tally is announced. Obama wins 11-0!

Rokita's a Republican and a good sport: he applauds when Biden wins VP 11-0.

Alternate John Bonecutter signs my program!

I love the mural in the House chamber. There's one just like it in Indianapolis' Eagle!

I'm in the fabulous state of Indiana for Election Day. (Indiana has many things to recommend it, among them IU, Breaking Away, and "Back Home Again in Indiana" my favorite Tin Pan Alley songs.)

Indiana, for the first time since 1964, is a toss-up. What does the photo below tell you about this contest? (So where are the "Black Panthers for McCain"?)

The 2008 campaign (the public part at least) began 21 months ago. The next presidential campaign will only begin earlier. Is that a bad thing?

Here's a commentary I did for yesterday's CBS News Sunday Morning.



Whom would you like to see run in 2012?

He's a Marxist. He's a Muslim. And that's not all...

If there's one thing Republicans and Democrats can agree on during this election year, it's this: both prospective First Ladies are impressive women. And they're knockouts! Whichever of these women ends up in the White House, millions of ordinary American women -- and men -- will emulate her.

That's right: Men. So which of these ladies do men see as more of a role model? Watch the short videos below, then vote.

We'll start with Michelle...



And now let's take a look at Cindy...



What about you, guys?

As the shouting subsides (hopefully) over the ACORN voter registration flap, two things are clear (to the rational, at least):

1. Even if Mickey Mouse is registered to vote, it doesn't mean that he can cast a vote -- though it sure would liven up my dreary polling place if he bounded in to pull the lever. (Actual voter fraud convictions -- my favorite being for "voter impersonation" -- are rarer than death from SARS.)

2. This is the latest chapter in the battle between Democrats trying to expand the number of registered voters -- and Republicans countering that effort by putting up roadblocks, ostensibly to safeguard against the phantom threat of fraud.

BUT this post is not about the ACORN contretemps. So any cut-and-paste rant about ACORN left in the comments section will be discarded faster than a Palm Beach butterfly ballot.

The truth is, very few of us wish that everyone of adult age went to the polls to cast a ballot. Maybe out there there are some ardent small-d democrats who are above partisanship, who more than anything just want the voice of The People to be heard!

The rest of us just want Our Guy to win. That means hoping and praying that the supporters of the Other Guy stay home.

It just so happens that most of the disenfranchised (including 5.3 million with criminal records!) are likely to vote Democrat. No one disputes that. Then there are the multitudes who won't be able to vote because they don't have proper photo id -- in many cases because they're car-less ... in other words, poor ... in other words, likely Democrats.

So while Democrats are on the right side in their efforts to expand and ease voting -- and Republican officials are disingenuous in their fears of voter fraud -- it's not as if Democrats are fighting for the most virtuous of reasons. Please, if our prisons and poorhouses were filled with white evangelical males, sides in this long-running Expanded Enfranchisement vs. Fear of Fraud debate would instantly flip. (In fact, almost half the prison population is African-American.)

Neither the Constitution nor the Bill or Rights includes a Right to Vote. Shocking -- until you remember that we were founded as a republic, where mostly white male landowners were entrusted (by states) to have the independence of means and thought to make a responsible decision for the rest of us. (Early on only Vermont -- surprise, surprise -- had anything close to universal suffrage.)

So let's be brutally honest: do we believe in universal suffrage? should everyone of legal age be allowed to vote? (That's not what we have now.)

Or, rather than lie to ourselves, should we come out as a country and declare that some people deserve to vote and others don't? This isn't a rhetorical question.

Let's start with prisoners -- present and former.

Here's the reality: Today one in every 100 adults (and one out of every fifteen black men) is in prison. A total of 7 million are behind bars, on parole or on probation. Two states (Maine and Vermont) permit inmates to vote. At the other extreme, two states (Virginia and Kentucky) ban ex-felons from voting for life. (Since 2000 seven states began permitting ex-felons to vote, though the procedural hurdles are daunting.)

The result: 5.3 million Americans are barred from voting in this election because of their criminal records, by far the largest group of disenfranchised voters.

Sarah Palin continues to divide the nation. But there's one thing all of us can agree on: her interview with Charlie Gibson had a definite porno vibe. And no, it's not just Palin's glasses which have been inaccurately described as "sexy librarian" specs. (I assure you, few librarians can afford $425 Kazuo Kawasaki frames. Certainly not Wasilla's actual librarian, a job more endangered than the polar bear.)

What made the encounter so porno-y was Palin's awkward scripted quality, the poor lighting (why does every piece of tape from Alaska look like a cross between a hostage video and skin flick?), and of course Palin's pouty-lipped eagerness to please. Gibson feigned irritation only added to the sexual tension.

The adult film subgenre known as Palin Porn is expected to hit the market just after Election Day. Make no mistake, fans from both parties will be stuffing this ballot box.

Which title would you like to see released first? Vote now!

(You can also suggest your own in the comments section. Warning: Let's keep this discussion respectful. Any smutty suggestions or comments will be deleted!!)

Sarah Palin

"Sarah Palin"

Tina Fey's sensational portrayal of Sarah Palin is unlike any other political impersonation ever, for one simple reason: it may very well end up defining a major political figure before that figure has defined herself.

Consider SNL's previously most celebrated impersonations. Four others leap to mind: Chevy Chase as Gerald Ford. Dana Carvey as George H.W. Bush. Will Ferrell as George W. Bush. Darrell Hammond as Al Gore.

As much as the NBC-industrial complex wants us to believe those performances affected the elections in which they appeared, I doubt it. The candidates portrayed were already firmly established in the public consciousness when they were parodied. The portrayal that stirred the most talk on the cable yakfests was Hammond's Gore. It was a revelation, highlighting Gore's condescension and his "Me, teacher! Me, teacher!" front-row ass-kissiness. Even so, there was no confusing the man and his parodist. Gore had already been Vice President for eight years.

With Tina Fey and Sarah Palin, it's different. I keep hearing people say that they're confusing Palin and Fey; that when they watched the actual debate, they kept forgetting they weren't watching Tina Fey. This isn't just a testimony to Fey's brilliant performance. It's also testimony to the McCain campaign's flawed rollout of Palin: she really was too sheltered. There's insatiable curiosity about the lady, but we're only getting dribs and drabs. TIna Fey is filling in the rest.

There are of course evident differences between the actual Sarah Palin and Tina's "Sarah Palin".

The actual Sarah Palin, while clearly unprepared for a national campaign, is consumed with ambition and may yet pull it off. She's folksy and flirtatious on the outside, steely on the inside. "Sarah Palin," on the other hand, is more daffy. She wants to rule the world, yes, but she's more of a bubblehead, easily distracted by shiny objects. She's sort of delightful.

The real Sarah Palin plows through her sentences like a Panzer through Poland, butchering innocent sentences, leaving syntactical carnage in her wake. "Sarah Palin" blithely skips from word to word with the blind faith that she'll make it to the other side of the rhetorical rapids without slipping.

The real Sarah Palin believes most of what she says. Or at least you can tell what she believes between the lines. (Her code is pretty obvious.) Meanwhile "Sarah Palin" seems more ... misguided. Somebody told her what to think and, you betcha, she's stickin' with it ... unless someone tells her to change her mind.

Perhaps the best way to understand the difference between Sarah and "Sarah" is through the lens of E!'s The Girls Next Door. The real Sarah Palin is Holly -- eyes fixed on the prize ... the prize being 82 year old Hef. (Holly, in fact, is from Alaska!) Fey's "Sarah Palin" is Bridget from The Girls Next Door. Fun is a major priority. (For those of you wondering, Kendra is a working class Democrat.)

Is this why the McCain camp wanted to postpone the Vice Presidential debates?


Watch TYT!

A well known conservative writer used to support Sarah Palin, and genuinely wanted to see her succeed. But after Palin had an interview with Katie Couric, she changed her mind completely.


Watch TYT

Need I say more?


Watch TYT!

Republican aides have come out and said that John McCain simply does not know how to fix America's economic meltdown. While McCain thinks he went to Washington this week to aide the bailout dilemma, House Republicans strongly argue that he made matters worse. Does he even know whether or not he's against the bailouts? Watch the clip for more details.


Watch TYT

Why is Sarah Palin crediting a man who performs witchcraft?